Pathway lighting for door handles

ABSTRACT

A door handle device includes pathway lighting to illuminate a pathway when needed, such as during a power outage, fire, or other emergency. The pathway lighting includes at least one light source, such as a super-bright LED or other low current/power light source, that is mounted to a door and that is bright enough to illuminate a pathway. Power for the light source may be provided by an internal power source that is used to power other components (e.g., a lock, a key card reader, etc.) within the door handle device. The pathway lighting acts as a backup or supplemental light source when needed to guide people toward a desired location. The pathway lighting may also act as an interior light.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to door handle assemblies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently-used hotel room doors incorporate special door handleassemblies rather than the doorknobs used in conventional doorknobsnormally found in residences. These door assemblies often incorporateelectronic circuitry, such as an electronic key card reader, electroniclatches, and other devices.

There are situations where there is insufficient lighting to locate thedoor handle, such as at nighttime, during a power outage, in the case offire, etc. Although it may be possible to direct supplemental lightingto illuminate the door handle, the lighting will also lose power in thecase of a power outage if it is connected to a central source, making itineffective in emergency situations where there is a power loss.Moreover, there is currently no way to provide pathway lighting inemergency situations, nor is there any way to control lighting torespond to environmental conditions, such as a change in the amount ofambient light near the door handle assemblies. Conventional lightingused to illuminate the door handle itself may provide enough lightingfor locating the door handle in darkened conditions, but it isinsufficient to illuminate any area beyond the immediate vicinity of thedoor handle.

There is a desire for a device that provides a way to illuminate apathway in the event of a power outage or other situation requiringsupplemental lighting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is generally directed to a door handle deviceincorporating pathway lighting to illuminate a pathway when needed, suchas during a power outage, fire, or other emergency. In one embodiment,the device includes at least one light source, such as a super-brightLED or other low current/power light source, that is mounted to a doorand that is bright enough to illuminate a pathway. Power for the lightsource may be provided by an internal power source that is used to powerother components (e.g., a lock, a key card reader, etc.) within the doorhandle device. In one embodiment, the device also includes a lightsensor that detects the amount of ambient light surrounding the deviceand a controller that controls the operation of the light source basedon the amount of ambient light.

By providing pathway lighting on the door handle device, the inventioncan illuminate a pathway in situations where other light sources areunavailable. As a result, the pathway lighting provides an additionalmeasure of comfort to guide users toward the door and lead them toward adesired location, if needed, in the event that normal lighting isunavailable. The pathway lighting may also act as interior lighting toprovide emergency lighting and/or act as a nightlight.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a door handle device according toone embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of a door handle device of FIG. 1according to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a representative diagram of a control unit in the door handledevice according to one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a representative diagram of a control unit in the door handledevice according to another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a front portion of a door handle device 100 accordingto one embodiment of the invention. In this description, the term“front” corresponds to the portion of the door handle device 100 that ison the exterior portion of the door (e.g., facing into a hallway), whilethe term “rear” or “back” corresponds to the portion of the door that ison the interior portion of the door (e.g., facing into a hotel room).

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the door handle device 100 includes adoor handle 102 and a face plate 104. The face plate 104 may include aslot 106 or other opening for accommodating an electronic key (notshown). Indicator lights 108 may be included in the device 100 toprovide visual feedback to a user to indicate whether or not the keycard is inserted correctly into the slot 106.

To illuminate a pathway in the vicinity of the door handle device 100,the device 100 includes at least one light source 110. The light source110 itself may be any light source that runs on low current/power andthat can produce light with enough brightness to illuminate a pathway.Possible light sources include, for example, LEDs, electro-luminescentlight sources, incandescent lights, etc. In the illustrated example, thelight source 110 is a module 112 containing a plurality of super-brightLEDs 114. As shown in FIG. 3, the light source 110 may obtain its powerfrom, for example, an internal power source 116 within the device 100that is also used to power other components within the device 100, suchas a key card reader 118, a latch (not shown), or locking mechanisms(not shown) in the door. Connecting the light source 110 with aninternal power source 116 used within the door rather than an externalcentralized power source ensures that the light source 110 can be usedfor emergency lighting in the event of an emergency, power outage, orother similar occurrence requiring supplemental lighting.

Note that the light source 110 is not used simply to illuminate the doorhandle 100 and therefore cannot simply be, for example, a low-wattageincandescent light. Instead, the light source 110 should be brightenough so that the light sources 110 on multiple doors in a hallway, forexample, delineate a pathway that can be easily seen and followed in anemergency situation even if there is no other available ambientlighting. For example, the light sources 110 may define and illuminate apathway that leads toward an exit.

In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the device 100 includes a controlunit 118 that is manually operable or has an electronic eye or othersimilar light sensor 120 that detects the amount of ambient lightsurrounding the device 100. The device 100 also includes a switch 122that controls operation of the light source 110 based on the detectedamount of ambient light. For example, the switch 122 may be controlledto provide infinite adjustment of the light intensity output by thelight source 110 based on the amount of ambient light (e.g., decreasingthe brightness of the light source 110 when ambient light level is highand increasing the brightness of the light source 110 sufficiently toilluminate the pathway when the ambient light level drops below aselected threshold). Alternatively, the switch 122 may simply cause thelight source 110 to turn on only when the light sensor 120 detects thatthe ambient light drops below the threshold; in this case, the lightsource 110 would remain turned off at all other times.

As shown in FIG. 2, a light source 110 a may be mounted on the rear sideof the door as well as or instead of the front side of the door. Whenthe light source 110 a is mounted on the rear side of the door to face,for example, an inside of a hotel room, the light source 110 a can actas a night light or beacon so that a person can easily find the doorhandle 102 in a darkened room. Moreover, because the light source 110 acan be adjusted to output light having an intensity that is high toilluminate a pathway, the inventive device 100 provides an additionalmeasure of safety to hotel room occupants. Note that incorporating thelight sensor 120 to control operation of the light source 110 a in thisembodiment can allow the light intensity to be reduced if, for example,the light source 110 a is to be used only as a night light innon-emergency situations. Note that although the embodiment shown inFIG. 2 shows the light source 110 a pointing upward, the light source110 a may be arranged to point downward to illuminate the door handle102 from above instead.

The control unit used to power and control operation of the light source110 a in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is the same as the one describedabove with respect to FIG. 3. Note that a single given door may have thedevice 100 having the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment shownin FIG. 2, or both. If the door has a light source on both its frontside 110 and its rear side 110 a, the same control unit 118 may be usedto control operation of both light sources 110, 110 a if desired.

Further, the control unit 118 may be configured so that the lightsources 110, 110 a operate differently under different ambient lightconditions, if desired. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the controlunit 118 may also include a controller 124 that controls the two lightsources 110, 110 a independently based on the ambient light sensed fromrespective light sensors 120, 120 a. In one embodiment, the controller122 turns the front light source 110 off when its corresponding lightsensor 120 detects light in a hallway, while the controller 122 alsoturns the rear light source 110 a on when its corresponding light sensor120 a detects that the hotel room is darkened. In both cases, the lightsources 110 a , 110 b illuminate and define a pathway in the vicinity ofthe light source 110 a , 110 b due to their brightness.

Instead of or in addition to the sensors 120, 120 a, a receiver 126 maybe connected to the switch 122 or the controller 124 to receive awireless message from, for example, a wireless messenger communicationsystem (not shown). In this case, the message received by the receiver126 acts as the control mechanism. The message may instruct the switch122 or controller 124 to enable or disable the light source 110, 10 a;in one example, in the case of a power outage, the messenger system cansend a last message to turn on the light source 110, 110 a to alert aguest of the location of their room or otherwise provide more customizedcontrol over the light source 110, 110 a.

Incorporating a light source to serve as pathway lighting for a doorhandle device and powering the light source with a power sourceassociated with the door itself provides a reliable, economical way tooffer supplemental lighting in emergency situations. Moreover,controlling the intensity of the light output from the light sourcebased on a detected amount of ambient light allows more efficientoperation of the light source with minimized current draw.

It should be understood that various alternatives to the embodiments ofthe invention described herein may be employed in practicing theinvention. It is intended that the following claims define the scope ofthe invention and that the method and apparatus within the scope ofthese claims and their equivalents be covered thereby.

1. A door handle device, comprising: a door handle assembly; and atleast one light source that illuminates a pathway in a vicinity of thedoor handle device.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the door handleassembly comprises: a door handle; and a door plate, wherein said atleast one light source is adjacent to the door plate.
 3. The device ofclaim 2, wherein the door plate includes an opening to accommodate anelectronic key, wherein the device further comprises a control unithaving a power source that powers circuitry for reading the electronickey.
 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the power source also powers saidat least one light source.
 5. The device of claim 1, further comprisinga control unit having a power source that powers said at least one lightsource.
 6. The device of claim 5, further comprising at least one lightsensor, wherein the control unit controls operation of said at least onelight source based on ambient light detected by said at least one lightsensor.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein said at least one light sourcecomprises at least one light emitting diode.
 8. The device of claim 7,wherein said at least one light source comprises a plurality of lightemitting diodes.
 9. A door handle device, comprising: a door handleassembly having a door handle and a door plate, the door plate includingan opening to accommodate an electronic key; at least one light sourcethat illuminates a pathway in a vicinity of the door handle device,wherein said at least one light source is adjacent to the door plate;and a control unit having a power source to selectively supply power tosaid at least one light source.
 10. The device of claim 9, furthercomprising at least one light sensor in communication with the controlunit, wherein the control unit selectively supplies power to said atleast one light source based on ambient light detected by said at leastone light sensor.
 11. The device of claim 9, wherein the control unit ismanually operable.
 12. The device of claim 9, further comprising areceiver in communication with the control unit to receive a wirelessmessage, wherein the control unit selectively supplies power to said atleast one light source based on the wireless message.
 13. The device ofclaim 9, wherein the power source also powers circuitry for reading theelectronic key.
 14. The device of claim 9, wherein said at least onelight source comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs). 15.The device of claim 9, further comprising a second door handle assembly,wherein the door handle assembly is on an exterior side of a door andthe second door handle assembly is on an interior side of the door, andwherein said at least one light source comprises a first light sourceassociated with the exterior side of the door and a second light sourceassociated with the interior side of the door.
 16. The device of claim15, further comprising a first light sensor associated with the firstlight source and a second light sensor associated with the second lightsource, wherein the control unit controls operation of the first lightsource based on ambient light detected by the first light sensor andcontrols operation of the second light source based on ambient lightdetected by the second light sensor.
 17. The device of claim 15, furthercomprising a receiver in communication with the control unit to receivea wireless message, wherein the control unit selectively andindependently supplies power to at least one of the first light sourceand the second light source.
 18. The device of claim 15, wherein thecontrol unit is manually operable to selectively and independentlysupply power to at least one of the first light source and the secondlight source.
 19. The device of claim 9, wherein the door handleassembly is on an exterior side of a door.
 20. The device of claim 9,wherein the door handle assembly is on an interior side of a door.